Obviously I draw a lot of inspiration from A Softer World with the photo-comics, though I can hardly claim their gravitas. Another of my favorite blogs, Visualizing Neolithic, does the same sort of photo juxtapositions, but without captions. Using images (or in this case comics) to showcase interpretations in archaeology is often done without too much introspection, and my dissertation necessarily involves a critique of previous practice, so I’ve turned to a lot of Visual Studies literature to work through some basic theory. If photographs are melancholy objects, then putting them together into a narrative at least gives them a bit of company, and, more enticingly, the white space between, the “gutter” where all the action really happens, is a fabulous liminal space.

The Guardian featured Greenpeace’s new project depicting climate change in Spain and one of my favorite blogs speculated that these photos are so romantic that they would encourage “Climate Change Escapism”–that people would be so curious about this brave new world that they’d keep cranking out the pollution.

I’ve long been a connoisseur of the post-apocalyptic aesthetic–reading survivalism novels in my pre-teens and cyberpunk in my mid-teens only cemented the aching need to see this world in smoking ruins.

Granted, as BLDGBLOG notes, these are fantastic, romantic visions, with all of the traces of human suffering that this would entail happening off-screen. My personal carbon print is actually very small–walking/bicycling around with no car, tiny apartment, no air conditioning, recycling, buying local–but is it okay to do all of this with my fingers crossed? I am curious.

“blah blah, I miss the stars”
I heard they look like pinpricks in our sheet
of tinfoil, hung in the window of a dark room
Big deal!

They say the sunsets never used to look like this,
All blues and greens they’re beautiful
Admit it!
They’re beautiful.
My New World – Epoxies

Join us for Remixing Çatalhöyük Day, a public program sponsored by OKAPI and the Berkeley Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük. Visit OKAPI Island in the 3-D virtual environment of Second Life (see Getting Started below) and explore the past and present of Çatalhöyük, a 9000-year-old village located in present-day Turkey. OKAPI Island features virtual reconstructions of the excavation site and multimedia exhibits of research data. The Island was constructed by a team of undegraduate research apprentices during the Spring and Fall 2007 semester. The Remixing Çatalhöyük program includes lectures, guided tours, games, and much more. Mark your calendars!

(5 – 5:30 PM PST)
Remix Competition. The public is invited to use the OKAPI Island Sandbox or Graffiti Cube to build and share reconstructions of Çatalhöyük or “remixes” of archaeological research data. At 5pm PST, the Berkeley Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük team will review and select top entries for virtual awards and exhibition on OKAPI Island.

For more information on the event and how to enter Second Life, visit:

Pamuk, when asked about the allegations of “insulting Turkishness” brought against him, quoted Adorno: “It is part of morality not to be at home in one’s home”. It is necessary to critique the culture in which you are the most comfortable–it’s a fairly basic lesson in reflexivity, but one that can make you an absolute bore at parties. Striking a balance between the voracious intellectual appetite for incisive commentary and telling good stories over beer can be tough, and I’ve seen a lot of people fail miserably at it.

And, sometimes, it feels pretty damn amazing to let go and love home. I don’t quite have the gall to count myself as one of Said’s ‘exiles’, able to look at home with detachment, especially as my ‘exile’ has been self-imposed and has only served to make me appreciate Texas all the more. Now I have a more certain metric to measure this love-of-place.

All the intellectualizing aside, it was amazing to be with my adopted ‘family’ again, eating funnel cakes, drinking beer, and listening to a bunch of bands in the big yellow Texas sunshine. I borrowed a big cadillac from an old lady and had to clean out the guns and prescription pills before driving it around. Out of all the bands I saw (New Pornographers, Okkervil River, White Denim, Explosions in the Sky, Of Montreal, Final Fantasy, The Sword, Sick of it All, Madball, Neurosis, Angry Samoans, Battalion of Saints, Witchcraft, Girl Talk, Battles, Mates of State, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness, Against Me, Riverboat Gamblers, Youth Brigade, Murder City Devils, Poison Idea, The Saints, Diplo, MC Chris, Clap! Clap!, Ocote Soul Sound) the two bands from Texas were the best, and I stood to watch them with my fellow Austinites–scruffy, black-clad, tattooed compatriots, holding cans of Tecate in beer koozies–and I found myself wondering, for the millionth time, if that was enough.